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They Came from the Attic
Above us Lives Evil
Canada 2009
produced by Garnett Campbell, Jason Mills, Joahnne Mellhuish (executive) for Mills Pictures, Flixx Studios, Redant Films
directed by Jason Mills
starring Nicola Elbro, Robert L. Duncan, Marina Seretis, Leon Bourikos, Nathan Dashwood, John Struthers, Chris Walters, Amanda Konkin, Dick Pugh, Hazuki Kambe, Greg Russell Tiderington, Paul Mills, Krista Fowler, Julian LeBlanc, Daniel St. Andrews, Monique Van de Plas, Jason Mills, Simon Mills, Johnny Mills
written by Jason Mills, music by Casey Chadwick, visual effects by Simon Mills, special makeup effects by Michelle LaPratt
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Young Jennifer (Nicola Elbro) hates her life: Her parents (Robert L.
Duncan, Marina Seretis) move from one place to the next every six months
or so, and seem to make it a point to move her further and further away
from her boyfriend Matt (Nathan Dashwood), furthermore they leave mostly
her in care of her catatonic brother Ben (Leon Bourikos) - and what's
worse, she feels responsible for his state of mind since she believes she
has (however unintentionally) caused the death of his twin brother, which
triggered his catatonia. What's even worse is that the house mom and dad
have picked for the next half year or so is nothing short of spooky, at
least in her eyes ... even though, after the first night in the house all
she has really witnessed is a voyeuristic yet dim-witted neighbour boy
(Greg Russell Tiderington), and a freak power outage. Sure, her brother
breaks out of her catatonia to warn her of something, but she's not too
sure how to interpret it. And the dim-witted neighbour also warns her of
something ... but hey, for all she knows he's a braindead pervert, right. Night
number two shows more promise: Mom and dad go out, little Ben is easily
sent off to bed, and Matt has promised to stop by ... but once he's here,
there's nothing but sex on his mind - and his beer-guzzling friends have
come, too, just to make sure that he's really "doing it". And
then all hell breaks loose, since obviously there are living creatures up
the attic that ... well, just like to attack and kill people. So it's bye
bye Matt, bye bye Matt's friends, bye bye pervert neighbour, bye bye
pervert neighbour's parents (Dick Pugh, Hazuki Kambe), bye bye everyone in
the vicinity. Only Jennifer and her brother manage to lock themselves
inside the relative safety of Matt's car. But the next morning, when Jen
thinks the worst is over and her parents come home, dad thinks his young
girl just had a party and, despite her warnings, goes inside the house to
check ... They Came from the Attic/Above Us Lives
Evil might not offer much
new story-wise - actually it never strays far from its tried-and-true path
- but it's a great example of economic filmmaking: Suspense is expertly
built up to the finale, next to no time is wasted with unnecessary
subplots, the camera is hardly given a chance to linger on the movie's
effectswork too long to give it the appearance of being gratuitous, and
the whole thing is just beautifully paced. Add to this a competent cast,
and hey, you've got yourself a pretty good piece of genre cinema!
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